American author of political thrillers and technically-detailed Cold War espionage novels. Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. was an insurance broker with a love for naval history before the advent of his bestselling first novel, The Hunt for Red October, in 1984. His 1989 novel, Clear and Present Danger, was the #1 bestselling novel of the 1980s; and he is one of only three authors to have sold two million books on a first printing in the 1990s. Many of his novels have been turned into commercially successful films. He is also the author of a dozen non-fiction books, and the co-creator of the Op-Centre series. In 1996, Clancy co-founded a computer game developer, Red Storm Entertainment, which uses his name on several of its most successful games.